ABSTRACT
The imbalance between North and South, which had not varied much from unification days up to 1950, remained throughout the course of the subsequent rapid economic expansion. The situation is changing quickly, and all the changes have had important repercussions on the development of the vertical structure in relationship to the available labour force. The census returns reveal that since 1951 employment in the agricultural sector has dropped more in the North than in the South, the ratio between the numbers actively engaged in agriculture in the South and those in the North being three to one in 1971 as against two to one in 1961. Emigration to foreign countries remained a serious problem for Italy and this is borne out by the available statistics. Large-scale emigration, when it is only temporary in nature, brings with it much more rapid changes in consumer habits and cultural attitudes; like tourism and urbanization it is one of the main catalysts of renewal.
